The Giulianomaly

HNN, January 31, 2008
A few election cycles ago, reporters started to notice that voters were becoming way too self-conscious and savvy. When speaking to television reporters, more and more American citizens tended to speak in the kind of fifteen-second sound bites that actually appeared on the news. Moreover, when reporters asked about a particular candidate’s [...]

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Are the Democrats Ready to Stop Being Clinton Enablers?

HNN, January 27, 2008
En-a-ble (transitive verb)
1. provide somebody with means : to provide somebody with the resources, authority, or opportunity to do something.
It is hard to tell which moment from the recent South Carolina primary was more dishonest. The conventional wisdom is pointing to Bill Clinton’s dastardly, underhanded, too-clever-by-half, playing of the race card to [...]

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Hail Reagania!

HNN, January 22, 2008
[Mr. Troy is Professor of History at McGill University, and the author, most recently, of Hillary Rodham Clinton: Polarizing First Lady and Morning in America: How Ronald Reagan Invented the 1980s. He is a member of the advisory board of HNN. ]
So far, it seems that the most popular politician in the [...]

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The Dems are so 20th Century, and the Republicans, so 19th Century

HNN, January 18, 2008
[Mr. Troy is Professor of History at McGill University, and the author, most recently, of Hillary Rodham Clinton: Polarizing First Lady and Morning in America: How Ronald Reagan Invented the 1980s. He is a member of the advisory board of HNN. ]
So far, the Democratic contest is feeling very twentieth century and [...]

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Obama and Edwards are Libeling HRC on MLK — and Distorting History

HNN, January 13, 2008
[Mr. Troy is Professor of History at McGill University, and the author, most recently, of Hillary Rodham Clinton: Polarizing First Lady and Morning in America: How Ronald Reagan Invented the 1980s. He is a member of the advisory board of HNN. ]
Not surprisingly, as the Democratic race heats up, it is getting [...]

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Artifacts: When does it help to cry in New Hampshire?

HNN, January 9, 2008
As Hillary Clinton’s tearful moment becomes historical and political legend, it is worth remembering the famous or infamous moment in the 1972 campaign, when Edmund Muskie cried – -or wiped ice and snow from his eyes — as he defended his wife’s honor. His campaign crashed after that and this supposed moment [...]

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Making Elections Real Events not Pseudo Events

HNN, January 9, 2008
Perhaps the best thing that happened in the marginal, unrepresentative Iowa caucuses was that Senator Barack Obama defied all that media speculation about Senator Hillary Clinton’s “inevitability.” Perhaps the best thing that happened in the marginal, unrepresentative New Hampshire primary was that Senator Hillary Clinton disproved all that media speculation about Senator [...]

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Iowa: the snap of a starter’s pistol not the roar of a rocket launcher

HNN, January 4, 2008
[Mr. Troy is Professor of History at McGill University, and the author, most recently, of Hillary Rodham Clinton: Polarizing First Lady and Morning in America: How Ronald Reagan Invented the 1980s. He is a member of the advisory board of HNN. ]
The people have spoken: “Obama and Huckabee Triumph,” the headlines are [...]

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Fred Thompson’s Disinterest May Reflect Sanity not Laziness

HNN, January 1, 2008
 
When an Iowa voter recently asked him about the intensity of his motivation for running, former Republican Fred Thompson admitted “I’m not particularly interested in running for president.” This statement confirmed the media spin on Thompson as too lazy and too disengaged. But Thompson’s admission may be the sanest statement a candidate [...]

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